Your child is struggling with something bigger than scraped knees. Navigate the conversation that defines whether they come to you in the future.
Part of
Parenting Through Hard Conversations →
The conversations parents wish someone had prepared them for. From reaching a teenager who has shut down, to talking about drugs, mental health, or failure — practice the exchanges that determine whether your child comes to you when it matters.
Skills you'll build
What happens in this story4 scenarios
Your child hasn't been themselves. It's not the skinned-knee kind of pain — it's the kind that lives behind their eyes, in the things they're not saying. You can feel it. Now you have to reach it.
You sit next to them — not across from them, not above them — and try to create an opening small enough that it doesn't feel like an interrogation but big enough for the truth to fit through.
They tell you. Your first instinct is to fix it, minimize it, or promise it will be okay. But they didn't come to you for solutions — they came to see if you could handle their pain without flinching.
You can't take this away from them. But you can show them they don't have to carry it alone — and that starts with what you do next, not what you say.
More stories in this course
View all →The Teen Talk
Your teenager has started pulling away. You have one window, one evening, one chance to reach them before the wall goes up for good.
4 scenarios →The Difficult Topic
Drugs. Sex. Failure. Mental health. The things we wish someone had talked to us about. Now it is your turn. Do it better than it was done for you.
4 scenarios →The Family Decision
Your family disagrees on something that affects everyone. No one wants to fight. No one wants to talk. Someone has to go first.
4 scenarios →The Child in Pain
Your child is struggling with something bigger than scraped knees. Navigate the conversation that defines whether they come to you in the future.
Start free →4 scenarios · 25 min · No account required to try